Always Win
by The Noble French Fry
Summary: Alec moves in on a hot girl in Crash, but little does he know she's gonna turn out to be a bit more than he can handle... [AlecOriginal Character, MaxLogan][Fourshot][Complete]
1. The First Night

**Title:** Always Win: The First Night  
**Fandom:** Dark Angel  
**Summary:** Alec moves in on a hot girl in Crash, but little does he know she's gonna turn out to be a bit more than he can handle...  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Reason:** language  
**Genres:** action, romance  
**Pairings/Characters:** Alec/OC (that's original CHARACTER, not Original Cindy), and implied Max/Logan in later chapters  
**A/N:** Well, so far on LiveJournal, this fic's been pretty much a flop. I'm hoping for better success here, but I'm doubting it's gonna happen. Prove me wrong!

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**Always Win: The First Night**

With a contented sigh, Alec walked through the doors of the Crash bar. This week had been long, and he was glad that it was coming to an end. Today was Friday. That meant no work tonight, or for the next two days.

And all play no work made Alec a very happy man.

Making his way to the bar, he looked around for Max and noted happily that she wasn't here tonight. He swung his leg over a barstool and sat down, ordering the first—but certainly not the last—beer of the night.

While he waited for the bartender to pour it up, his eyes scanned the room, from the other people sitting at the bar, to the couples and groups sitting at the tables, to the area with the pool tables. At the last area, a sight instantly caught his eye.

At the pool table nearest to the bar, a rather fascinating game was going on. With probably twenty people looking on as spectators as a big burly man who frequented the bar, and was a fairly good pool player if memory served Alec right, played against a tall, thin, shapely blond woman.

This woman's back was currently turned to Alec, but what he did see of the woman he liked. Her black, thin-strapped shirt left most of the back of her slim and trim shoulders bare and clung to her tightly before ending an inch and a half above the waist of her jeans. Said jeans were likewise tight, showing off shapely buttocks and legs. Her feet were shod with a pair of high heels that, coupled with her already great height, easily made her taller than half the men in the bar—including Alec.

And her hair, though short-cropped, was blond. Very blond.

"A tall, hot blond right here in Crash tonight," he muttered to himself under his breath. Unintentionally a little louder, he added, "What're the odds?"

"Right now, they're against the blond woman," the bartender said, causing Alec to turn around and look at him. The bartender nodded faintly in her direction. "But she's been on a hell of a roll." He sat the beer down in front of Alec, then turned his gaze towards the billiards game. "My bet's with her."

Alec likewise looked in that direction. "Hmm."

The bartender whistled faintly through his teeth. "But even if she loses, the guys over there are gonna try and keep her playing anyway," he said.

Not understanding, Alec frowned. "Why?"

In front of him, the big burly man made his shot and failed to drop the ball into the pocket. Since it was now her turn, the blonde woman stalked around the table with a strut that practically made Alec—and most of the men gathered around to watch the game—drool. After she found what she obviously thought was a good position, the woman stopped and leaned over the table to line up her shot. And the back of her shirt rode up to expose a large section of her lower back, and the front of it most likely dipped down a little lower.

Whistles echoed from men all around the bar, but mostly from the men sitting directly behind her. The woman just looked over her shoulder at those men, and Alec swore he saw a satisfied smirk pass across her face before she looked back down to the table.

"That's why," the bartender answered unnecessarily.

"Oh," was all Alec could say.

The woman made her shot and Alec heard the sound of not one, but two pool balls dropping into the pocket. Applause and a few cheers followed from some of the spectators, boos from the others that were supporting the woman's opponent. The woman stood up and shrugged at her opponent.

And then proceeded to run the entire table in the same manner.

The amount of cheers and applause increased as the game—or rather, the woman's domination of the game—progressed, as did the amount of grumbling and boos. And Alec, sitting at the bar and sipping away at his beer as he watched the game, was becoming more and more fascinated by the woman.

When she finally dropped the eight ball right into the pocket, the woman stood up straight, looking, obviously very satisfied, at the table. Then she laid down her stick atop the table and turned to her former opponent, who looked like he was about ready to shatter his stick into splinters.

"Well, bud, looks like you didn't have it in you this time around," she said, shrugging.

"You cheated," the man accused.

The woman's stance instantly hardened, her arms folding across her chest. "I never cheat," she said strongly. "This game is over." With that, she turned sharply and the man mumbled angrily before stalking off. Not even noticing, the woman took a couple of steps towards a man that Alec recognized as the usual bookie. She held out a hand towards him, palm up and raised an eyebrow. "I believe you owe me some cash."

The bookie rolled his eyes and unwillingly handed the woman what looked like a fairly large wad of cash.

She accepted it with a smirk and thumbed through it, counting. Satisfied with the count, she stuffed the cash into her bra. Then she turned to the spectators. "Anybody else want to take a shot?"

The people were quiet.

And the woman raised an eyebrow. "No takers?" she asked.

Alec washed the rest of his beer down in one gulp and stood up. Walking towards the billiards table, he started sliding his jacket off of his shoulders. "I'll play," he said.

The woman turned and looked at him, sizing him up in a single glance. "Hmm. Think you can break my winning streak?" she asked cockily.

"No, I _know_ I can," Alec responded just as cockily. As she was sizing him up, he was doing the same to her. He was finally getting a view of her from the front instead of the back.

She was a few inches taller than he was—maybe it was her shoes, maybe not—and was as thin and shapely as she looked from the back. Her shirt dipped low in the front, accentuated by a thick necklace that hung around her neck and down her chest. Her face was just as hot as the rest of her body, and her eyes were a deep blue.

And she gave Alec a short, disbelieving snort. "Care to put your money where your mouth is then?" she asked.

He shrugged loosely and reached for his wallet.

After they settled on an amount and handed over the money to the bookie for safekeeping, the woman racked up the balls and set them in position. After she removed the rack, she looked at Alec and shrugged with a single shoulder, wordlessly asking if he wanted to go ahead.

He mimicked her half-shrug. "Ladies first," he said.

The woman's stare hardened. "You can go ahead, then," she responded sharply. The spectators gave a collective "oooooh" at the insult, but the woman ignored them and continued, one eyebrow arched dangerously, "I might be a woman, but I'm no lady."

"Oh-kay," Alec said, making a face. "I'll break."

He lined up his shot and took it, sending the balls scattering across the table. Three of them dropped into pockets—two solid, one striped. Unable to stop it, a faintly smug smile appeared on Alec's face, and he looked over at the woman with a slight lift of the brow.

"Looks like I'm solids," he said. "I dropped one of yours. Your shot."

The woman cocked her head slightly to one side. "I know how to play the game," she said flatly.

Alec could've sworn he saw a flash of anger pass through her blue eyes as she brushed past him to set up her shot. And that made him happy. His faint slight at her had struck, and taken root. Now to see if it affected her game.

She easily dropped one, two, three, four balls with no trouble. The fifth bounced off of the pocket, though, and most of the spectators gave a collective, "Awww."

It seemed that since the last game, the woman had become the favorite, and Alec had become the underdog.

She stood and shrugged at him nonchalantly. "Your turn," she said casually.

As Alec brushed past her, he was mentally running through different tactics that he might use to affect the woman's game, as angering her obviously did not. Maybe the opposite—getting on her good side, or even better, _flirting_ with her—might affect her. He glanced over his shoulder at him.

"So, what's your name?" he asked.

Leaning partially on her cue stick, the woman smiled faintly and again cocked her head slightly to one side. "You can call me Win," she said smartly. "Just call me Win."

He raised an eyebrow, barely suppressing a chuckle. "Win?" he asked.

She nodded, face completely serious as she continued speaking, "Because I always win." There was the faintest touch of smugness to her voice, though not nearly as smug as Alec would've expected in a statement like the one she had just made. And her tone was not nearly as sharp as it had been during her earlier jab at him.

He raised his eyebrows and said, "Well, okay, Win. I'm Alec. And after this game, you might have to change _your_ name to lose." Without even double-checking his line-up, Alec quickly made his shot. And sunk it—though not quite as smoothly as he might've hoped.

Still, he looked at Win with a smile and shrugged. And she gave him a ruggedly flirty half-smile that made his heart freeze.

"You've still got to drop two more of those to catch up, and five more to win," she said, one brow arching slightly. "Seeing as how that still puts you definitely behind, I wouldn't be getting too confident quite yet."

To prove that he could easily catch up, Alec quickly sank two more, catching up to his opponent. The next shot, however, proved too difficult for him and it was Win's turn again all too soon.

The moment she lined up her next shot, Alec knew he had lost.

Both of her two remaining striped balls were easy shots. And though it was a difficult shot, she made dropping the eight ball into the called pocket look just as easy as the two previous shots.

That brought a round of applause and cheers from the people watching.

Straightening, Win gave Alec a satisfied smirk—but one that was considerably less _smug_ than he would have expected. And that vastly surprised him. Smugness just seemed to be turning out to be an emotion she didn't display.

"Told you not to get so cocky, Alec," she said, raising an eyebrow slightly. "You just lost yourself a game, plus some cash."

Deciding that being annoyed and hostile like the last man Win had beaten wouldn't impress her any, Alec coolly shrugged. "You win some, you lose some," he said smoothly.

The woman only smirked again. "Not me. I'm all win."

Before Alec could say anything in response to her, she'd turned to the bookie and was holding her hand out, palm up again. And once again, the man unwillingly put money in her hand, which Win then stuffed into her bra.

While she was doing this, Alec turned away and headed back to the bar. He wanted to see if Win would follow. If she didn't, then at least their bit of flirting had been fun. If she did, then maybe things might go somewhere. He found himself hoping that it was the latter.

He sat down on the same barstool as he had earlier, and ordered another bottle of beer.

A moment later, someone sat down on the stool next to him. He didn't have to turn to know that it was Win, but he did anyway. And she gave him another flirty smile. Before he could say anything, she turned to the bartender and ordered a beer.

When he turned around, she looked back at Alec.

"Done dominating the pool tables?" he asked.

She shrugged. "After the way I beat you, I don't think anybody else wants to even try their luck against me. I think everybody in this bar's figured out I'm a pool shark."

Again, before Alec could respond, Win looked away, again to the bartender, who had returned and set down her beer on the bar.

"Thanks," she said. Using one hand to hold the bottle and take a long swig of the beer, her other hand reached for and pulled out some money. She pushed it across the bar to the bartender as she took her bottle from her mouth. "There you go," she said.

The bartender counted the money. "This is—" he started.

Standing up, Win stopped him with a hand. She jerked her head towards Alec. "The rest is for his," she said. With that, she winked at Alec, turned, and walked out of the bar.

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**Please review. **


	2. The Second Night

**Glad to see that I'm turning out to have a better response here than on LiveJournal! Here's part 2!**

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**Always Win Part Two: The Second Night**

For the second night in a row, Alec happily walked through the doors of Crash. And again, his eyes raked across the people in the bar. This time, though, his eyes were scanning for a specific person. He looked out for Win, expecting to see her dominating the pool tables again.

But he didn't see her there.

However, he noticed, and noted, with a faint groan, that Max was already here tonight. She seemed to have a way of putting a dampener on Alec's nightlife fun. Like an opinionated big sister that was always looking over his shoulder when he was trying to put the moves on a new girl—or in tonight's case, a familiar girl.

Most of the time, he did his best to ignore her. But some nights… his best wasn't good enough.

_Oh, well_, he thought, rolling his eyes as he made his way towards the bar. He could at least try and ignore her. He started towards the bar as he had the night before, his eyes still looking around for the tall blond woman. He still didn't see her.

She should've been easier to spot than this, he mused. What with her being among the tallest people in the bar and all. He should've spotted her bleach-blond hair among the heads of people here by now.

Maybe she wasn't here tonight.

Despite all of Alec's reasoning, his heart seemed to sink at the thought. When he realized that he really was disappointed, Alec stopped, frowning. Sure, he liked Win enough, but since Rachel Berrisford, he hadn't really ever let himself form a bond to any woman. (Well, with the exception of Max. But that was different, because she was like a sister.)

Yet here he was, having had one night of flirtation with a woman, and he was already missing her because she wasn't here tonight.

The thought scared him. Yet, somewhere deep down, it thrilled him too. With an internal sigh, though, he pushed all of those thoughts out of his mind and headed for the bar.

He ordered a beer, and while he waited for it to show up, he again started scanning the bar. He told himself that he wasn't looking for Win, but he couldn't even fool himself.

And he finally spotted her.

Or rather, he spotted her back. Standing at the end of the bar, just past the last stool, she was facing away from him, but he could tell it was her. Tonight, she sported a black halter top that left the majority of her back bare. From the strap around her neck to halfway down her back where the shirt's back finally started, was all skin. So was, after a mere seven inches of cloth, her lower back, below the end of the shirt and the beginning of her jeans.

And the open skin of her lower back—just higher than the section of it that had been exposed yesterday—revealed a small tattoo. Of what, Alec didn't know. He couldn't make out what it was from here.

After the bartender handed Alec his beer, he picked it up and after taking a short swig, headed off with it in hand. Towards the end of the bar, where Win was standing.

When he was about ten steps behind Win, he became aware that she wasn't standing alone at the end of the bar. She was facing a man who was taller than she was, very trim, and well-muscled. He had dark eyes set in a well-defined face that most women would call handsome, topped by a shock of blond hair.

Alec froze. Disappointment flashed through him, followed by jealousy and anger. And as the last emotion roared through him, he determinedly continued towards Win and the man.

Seeing Alec over Win's shoulder, the man leaned close to her ear and let a single finger slide down the curve of her jaw. Alec barely made out the man's few short words.

"Don't forget me," he said.

And Win whispered softly yet slyly in return, "I won't."

With that, the man brushed past Win and then passed by Alec without so much as a glance. Half-turning over her shoulder, Win watched the man go, a faintly amused half-smile on her face. As he moved out of sight, she looked down to Alec.

He opened his mouth to say something snappy at her, but he found that he couldn't seem to form a sentence. Whether it was the anger clouding his mind or that he didn't know what to say, Alec didn't know.

But Win spoke, so he didn't have to.

"Brothers," she said, rolling her eyes. "They think they know everything." Though her words said she was exasperated, her tone was laced with affection. "Especially the big brothers.

"Brother?" Alec said, eyes widening. He looked over his shoulder for the man, but he was already gone. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction he'd gone anyway. "That was your brother?"

Picking up her bottle of beer from the bar and taking a swig, Win nodded. "Yeah," she affirmed, looking in the direction that Alec had pointed, even though her brother had disappeared amongst the crowd. "That was my oldest brother."

"You two don't look anything alike," Alec said.

Nodding again, she shrugged. "Yeah, we get that a lot." She gestured to her hair. "We got the same hair color, and that's about it."

Deciding a change of subject was in order, Alec cleared his throat. "So, I see you're not playing pool," he observed. "Is Queen Win finished ruling the pool tables?"

She half-shrugged. "I guess so. It's not like anybody's gonna play me."

"Yeah. So, what do you do for a living?"

For the briefest second, worry passed through her eyes. Then it was gone. She hesitated, then, "Uh, well, I do a lot of different stuff. Move around a lot. Never do the same job for more than a couple of weeks. What about you?"

Alec shrugged. "I'm just a Jam Pony bike messenger." He paused and then asked, with a smirk, "Do you dominate in your job like you did at the pool tables last night?"

She took another swig of her beer. "Win always wins. At everything."

"Win," he repeated slowly, looking down into his beer, then up to the woman beside him with a smile. "So, are you ever going to tell me your real name or not?"

She raised an eyebrow. "My real name is Win."

Alec frowned. "No, really."

Eyes narrowing slightly, she nodded adamantly. "Yeah, really," she said, a faint edge in her voice. "Win is my real name, but probably not like you think. W-E-N. Wen." She turned away from Alec, angling her body towards the bar as she looked down into her own beer. "It's short for Branwen."

"Oh, I see," Alec said, examining the bare backs of Wen's shoulders and how smooth her skin looked. "Branwen's a nice name."

Gingerly, he reached out and let his fingertips brush against that skin, smooth as glass…

And before he knew what was happening, he found himself forcefully pushed against the top of the bar, arm twisted painfully behind his back. His bottle of beer that had been on the bar in front of him fell to the floor and shattered with a clash that made heads turn. Now halfway laying atop the bar, Alec blinked, surprised and wondering how the hell anyone had gotten the jump on _him_, a transgenic superhuman.

When she leaned down close to his ear to speak, Alec realized that it was Wen who had him pressed to the bar.

"Look, don't touch," she hissed sharply in his ear. With that she backed off, releasing the pressure pinning Alec to the bar and her grip on his arm.

Instantly he spun on her, taking up a defensive stance. A half-dozen steps away now, Wen likewise took a partially defensive position, one that would be invisible to anyone but a trained fighter. "What the hell was that?" Alec asked.

Her blue eyes narrowed, but she said nothing.

"Oh, I oughta kick your ass for that," he said, fists clenching tightly. He was pretty much preparing to do just that, as every inch of him screamed that he use his strength and speed to jump out and hit her before she knew what was happening.

"Come and try," she softly welcomed.

He was about to, but suddenly Max was beside him, holding him back. "Stop," she said. "You don't need to fight her." Her dark eyes scanned the people watching. "Especially in front of everybody."

He turned to Max, the heated anger in him being stirred a little bit more. "Why not?" he asked.

She looked past him at where Wen had been standing, and made a "Hmm" sound. She turned back to Alec with a faint smirk quirking at the edges of her mouth. She pointed, and Alec looked. "Because, for one, she's gone."

Alec saw that Wen had indeed disappeared. His eyes scanned all over the gathered people, but he didn't see her blond head among them. Anywhere.

He shrugged. "I must've scared her off," he said.

Max just rolled her eyes.

------

Adjusting her coat on her shoulders, Wen headed down the dark street, glancing over her shoulder briefly to make sure that no one was following her. She didn't see anybody other than a few people hanging out near the entrance to Crash, and none of them were paying attention to her.

She spotted her destination—a phone booth—down the road, and her step quickened as she headed towards it.

When she had him pressed to the bar, Wen had seen the back of Alec's neck. Had seen what was there. She knew who he was. She knew _what_ he was.

Now to do something about that.

She stepped into the phone booth, putting coins into the slot and pressing the 0 for the operator.

Now she needed information.

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**Dun, dun, duh! The plot has thickened! **


	3. Secrets Revealed

**Well, here's part three! And I know some of y'all saw part of this coming...**

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**Exposed Secrets**

Muttering under his breath, Alec brought his bike to a rough stop in the Jam Pony building. He wasn't in a good mood for work this morning. Well, really, he wasn't in a good mood for _anything_ and hadn't been since last night. Not since he got "beat up" by a woman who might have him in height, but shouldn't have had half his muscle. And he'd been beating _himself_ up about that.

Maybe work would take his mind off of it, he thought.

He dismounted from his bike and leant it against a wall. Head down as he fiddled with the strap on his messenger bag, he headed towards the main counter, expecting Normal to pop out and thrust packages out at him.

Instead, his shoulder struck sharply against someone else's, causing his head to snap up to see who it was.

And then his jaw dropped.

Because he saw that who he had just bumped into wasn't just anyone, and wasn't just another of the messengers that worked here with him. It was, in all of her blond-haired, blue-eyed, rugged-smirked glory, Wen.

His eyes went wide and he sputtered as he struggled to find the voice that his surprise robbed him of. "_You!_" he accused when he finally found his voice. "What are _you_ doing here?!"

She only smirked wider. "I work here now," she stated smoothly.

"You _work_ here?" he asked, still astounded. Realizing how stupid that sounded, he quickly shut his mouth. When he regained his wits, his eyes narrowed. "Are you like stalking me or something?"

Wen scoffed. "Why would anyone want to stalk _you_?"

"Well you sure seem to be following me," Alec said sharply. "You show up at my bar two nights in a row, then you show up at my workplace." He raised an eyebrow. "So how do you explain that, besides stalking?"

She rolled her eyes. "Let me wholeheartedly assure you, it has absolutely nothing to do with some strange obsession with you," she said.

Alec folded his arms. "Then what _does_ it have to do with?"

Blue eyes darting around to look at the people moving around there, Wen looked very wary when she looked down—yes, _down_—at Alec. "I'll tell you, but not here," she said, voice barely above a whisper. "Get us out of here, and I'll tell you."

Alec's eyes widened. "Oh-kay," he said, slowly backing up. "You're kinda weirding me out."

Rolling her eyes again, Wen cocked her head slightly to one side. "Yeah, never doubt that the feeling's mutual." She glanced over her shoulder, then grabbed Alec's arm and dragged him towards the main counter. "But that doesn't really matter right now."

"Wen, what're you—" Alec started.

"Ah, Alec, I see you've met the new girl," Normal's voice cut in from the main counter before Alec could finish his sentence. Wen smiled a very fake looking smile at him, which Normal halfway returned. Then he thrust out a handful of packages and sealed letters at each of them. "Here. Both of you get going. Bip bip bip!"

Wen grabbed Alec and dragged him towards the door. "You heard the man: let's get moving," she said just loud enough for Normal to hear. Then quieter, to just Alec, she added, "If you want an explanation from me, follow along."

Rolling his eyes, Alec reluctantly did as she said. He put his packages into his bag and mounted his bike, riding back out the front door right behind Wen. Once out into the street, she drifted to one side, allowing room for Alec to move up beside her. Pedaling a little faster to catch up, he did exactly that.

"So, what is it you have to explain to me?"

Wen sighed through her teeth before answering, "Well, it's complicated. So don't freak out before you hear the whole story or anything," she said. She looked over at him, and for the first time, her blue eyes didn't seem flirty but solemn. Her voice was quiet as she said, "Last night I saw your tattoo. I know what you are."

Alec's heart was suddenly racing, but he didn't show it on his face. Instead he laughed, hoping he could throw the suspicion off of himself. "Oh, yeah. So you can tell all about me because you saw my tattoo?"

Wen's eyes remained serious despite Alec's playfulness.

"You're Manticore," she said quietly, and Alec felt his blood run cold. "You're not human," she continued with an almost accusatory tone, voice remaining barely above a whisper. "You're a genetic freak."

He opened his mouth to ask how she knew, wondering if he should start running now, but she answered his question before he got it out.

"Like me," she said softly.

His eyebrows rose. "Like you? You're Manticore too?"

Marginally, Wen nodded. Then for a long moment, she was quiet and they rode along on their bikes in silence, with Alec waiting for her to lash out at him. He was ready for that, ready to fight or run, but instead she spoke.

"Yeah," she said softly. "I'm one of the X5 generation like you." She tossed a mock-salute. "X5-162 at your service."

"One-six-two?" Alec asked, brow creasing as he frowned. "I'm four-nine-four. That means you're—"

"Older than you," she finished for him. She bit on her lip for a minute, and Alec wondered what she was doing. Then she broke out in hearty laughter, even though Alec didn't see the humor in that. "Oh, man. I'm like your big sister."

"Oh, great," Alec said flatly. "I flirted with my big sister. That's enough to ruin a man for life."

Wen continued laughing, and then abruptly stopped to say, "Well, I said I was _like_ your big sister." She looked over at him, and the flirty look was back in her eyes. "Never said I _was_ your big sister."

Alec smiled at her and then looked away. He felt the need for a change in subject. "So…" he said, beginning to get a bit curious. "You got out when Manticore burned to the ground?"

She shook her head. "No, I've been out longer than that," she answered. "I was out _long_ before that." Her brow creased faintly, as if she was thinking hard, trying to remember something she hadn't thought about in a while, and then she continued, "Back before the Pulse, even. In '08, I think."

"How the hell did you manage that? We both would've been all of eight years old."

"I was on some real-world training thing down in California," she answered, shrugging. "Hell, I don't even remember what it was for now. Or much of what happened. But, long story short, everything went south and everybody else was running away from the police or somebody, and little ol' me got shot. They just left me for dead. I got picked up by some folks who took me in, nursed me back to health, and raised me."

"Hmm," Alec said skeptically.

Wen turned to look at him, practically glaring. "What? You don't believe me?"

"Well…" Alec shrugged, somewhat wincing. "No, not really. Your story seems a little far-fetched if you ask me."

Wrenching her bike violently to the side, Wen skidded to a stop in the middle of the empty street. With her blocking his path, Alec almost crashed into her but grabbed hard on his bike's hand-break, bringing it to a jerking stop as well. Angered, he looked up at Wen, fully intending to yell something at her. The burning anger in her eyes stopped him.

"What do you doubt?" she asked hotly. "You doubt I'm Manticore like you? You doubt I'm an X5?" She turned away from him and grabbed the back collar of her shirt and jacket. She yanked it down, exposing the tell-tale barcode tattoo. "There's your proof." With her other hand, she tapped a finger on the tattoo. "Right there. X5-162." She let go of her collar and turned back to Alec, cocking her head questioningly.

"Uh, no, I don't doubt that," he said, not knowing what else to say.

"Well then, what's there to doubt?" she asked. "You doubt Manticore left me to die? What doubt is there in that? You doubt somebody picked a dying kid up out of the alley? That was the pre-Pulse years. People were still fairly decent and kind. And besides, the folks who picked me up…" She trailed off, shaking her head. "The folks who picked me up weren't just everyday folks."

"What do you mean?" Alec asked.

Again, Wen shrugged. "Well… They were sort of activists. Religious almost. But after the Pulse… They became more like vigilantes than activists. Took it upon themselves to become second police where there were none. And they kind of expanded. They started putting young kids through tough physical and martial-arts training and then 'inducting' them into the group. Even started sending members out on assignments outside of the city and state. And now I'm one of them."

"Are you on assignment now?" Alec asked.

Once more, Wen shrugged. "Well, kinda. But it's complicated." She glanced at her watch, and winked at Alec. "And I don't really have time to get into that now. Packages to deliver." With that, she turned her bike and started pedaling rapidly off.

"Hey!" Alec called after her. "You explained everything else, why not this?"

"I will," she answered over her shoulder. "Later."

---------------

He waited all day to see her again, expecting her to pop up at any minute, especially when he headed back to Jam Pony multiple times. However, he didn't see Wen again at work at all. He thought about that the entire way home after work. So much so that his thoughtful frown started to hurt his face.

When he got to the front door to his home, however, he was greatly and pleasantly surprised to find Wen there, casually leaning against it.

"What took you so long?" she asked, arching an eyebrow.

"I was waiting at Jam Pony for you," he answered. "Thought when you said you'd meet up with me later you meant at work. My mistake." He looked past her at his door, then frowned. "How'd you even know I lived here?"

She rolled her eyes. "Wonderful thing known as a phone book. Under people's phone numbers it has their addresses."

"Oh. Well, if you'd move, I could actually open the door for you."

Wen smirked. "No need." Not even bothering to turn around, she reached over and twisted the doorknob. It didn't catch on a lock or anything. And she pushed it open.

He started to ask how she'd unlocked his door, but he decided not to. There was any number of ways that she, being not only a Manticore transgenic but apparently a specially trained "cop", could've easily done it.

Instead, he gestured for her to go in. "After you."

She went in, and he followed after her. She wasted no time in flopping down on Alec's couch and making herself comfortable. Anxious for answers, he sat down beside her, but angled himself towards her.

"So," he said, "start explaining, then."

She sighed, then started, "Okay, yeah. Amsoure—that's what the activist organization is called, by the way—sent me up here to Seattle on an assignment. But after the assignment's complete, I'm not planning on heading back to Cali. I'm gonna stick around here. Stay in Seattle. The man that I told you was my brother? He's another 'operative' with Amsoure. Not my real brother, obviously, but he's the closest thing I had to a brother since my squad in Manticore. He knows what I'm doing. Tried to talk me out of it."

"Oh," was all Alec could say for a moment, as his mind raced at the thought that she was staying in Seattle. He wondered if it was because of him, but he quickly brushed away those feelings. He didn't want his eagerness to show. In its place came a surge of curiosity, and he had to ask, "What kind of assignment are you on?"

Wen blew out a deep breath between pinched lips. "It's complicated. But, long story short, there's a terrorist group that's planning on launching a series of bombs and warheads in big cities along the west coast, with their base being here in Seattle. We think their main goal is to trigger a massive earthquake further south. On the San Andreas Fault…" She shook her head. "And that would cause unchecked destruction."

"Whoa," Alec breathed. "You're in it deeper than I thought."

She gave a short, humorless laugh. "Ya think?" she asked sarcastically. She shook her head. "Yeah, and the problem is that when I went to check things out to lay out mission plans, I found out that they've upped security in the place. It's no longer a one woman job. I'm gonna need help."

"What about your brother?" Alec asked.

"He's already left town, headed back to Cali," Wen answered, sighing. "He actually left last night, right after leaving Crash. There's no chance of catching him in time now. And the job's more like a three-person job anyway. Not two." Realization passed over her face, and she turned to Alec with a smile. "But a transgenic…" she trailed off suggestively.

"_Me_?" he asked, understanding what she meant but did not say. "You want me to help you take down terrorists?"

She shrugged. "Why not? You're Manticore. You should be able to do it."

"Oh, sure, why not?" he said sarcastically. He shook his head. "You've known me for all of two days and you're already asking for big favors," he said, half-smiling. "You're not a shy girl are you?"

She grinned in return. "No, not at all. I've found that being shy generally gets you nothing you need. So, what do you say, Alec?"

He shrugged. "Well, generally breaking into top-secret, high-security places and stopping terrorists is more of Max's thing, but I could—"

"Max?" Wen interrupted, frowning. "Who's Max?"

"Oh, Max is another X5," he answered. "X5-452. She works with Eyes Only." She made an "ah" face, but said nothing. And Alec remembered that Wen had probably seen Max the night before in Crash. "Last night Max was the one who kept me from kicking your ass."

Half-turning so that she was directly facing Alec, Wen raised an eyebrow. "Kick _my_ ass? Oh, yeah, _right_. If she hadn't stepped in and stopped you, I would have thoroughly kicked _your_ ass."

Alec scoffed. "I doubt that."

Wen gave a snort. "Just because you _used_ to be a hot-shot in the ring, _Monty_, don't think that makes you a great fighter. I managed to muscle you down onto the counter at Crash pretty easily, if I remember correctly."

"That took me by surprise," Alec defended.

"Trust me, my punches would have taken you by surprise as well."

Alec scoffed again. "They wouldn't. I might not be in the ring anymore, but I definitely remember how to fight." He half-shrugged with one shoulder. "Why don't you try me?"

"I've got better things to do than fight you," she responded. "Especially when I know how it would turn out." She cut off his retort by raising a hand. "Yeah, but I don't want to hear how you could beat me. What I want to hear is if you think that your buddy Max would care to join in on the mission."

Alec shrugged. "Probably. She'd never admit it, but she's got kinda a hero complex thing. Hey, her boyfriend might even get involved. He could probably run things from that fancy apartment of his."

Wen raised an eyebrow. "Well, how exactly do we get a hold of this lovely pair?"

-------------

Alec had called over to Max's house, looking for her. Original Cindy had answered the phone and informed Alec that Max wasn't home. That she was over at Logan's. Opting to go ahead over instead of calling, Alec and Wen set off for Logan's house.

The whole way there, he wondered what the hell he was doing.

Doing this for a woman he'd just met all of two nights ago defied every bit of Alec's characteristic fend-for-yourself, self-preserving logic. He didn't stick his neck out for people like this.

And so he wondered why he was doing it now.

The only reason that made any real sense was one he didn't want to believe. He didn't want to believe that he was already becoming attached to Wen. He didn't like to believe that he was attached to anybody, really. In Manticore, attachments were considered impediments, and some semblance of that theory still seemed to stick in Alec's mind.

But even though he didn't really like that he was sticking his neck out for Wen, something in him knew he was going to be doing this anyway.

Before he knew it, he was ringing the doorbell to Logan's apartment.

A moment later, the door swung open to Logan, sitting there in his wheelchair. And his eyes widened when he saw who was at the door.

"Alec," he said, obviously surprised.

"Alec?" Max's surprised voice came from further back in the apartment. A few seconds later, she appeared, coming around the corner. She stood there and blinked for a moment too. "Alec. What're you doing here?"

He rolled his eyes. "Can't a guy just decide to stop by and say hi every now and then?" When Max and Logan both raised an eyebrow at him, he sighed. "Okay, obviously not. Well, good then, because that's not why we're here." He laid a hand on Wen's back. "We're here because Wen here has something to say."

She plucked Alec's hand from her back. "Don't touch," she said sharply. Then she turned back to Max and Logan. "Yeah, I've got something to tell you two." She glanced around the hallway and her voice dropped. "I'd rather say it inside, though."

"Oh, right. Of course," Logan said, wheeling backwards to make room for Wen and Alec to enter. "Come on in."

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	4. The Mission

**Heh. This is the last chapter. Hope you folks have enjoyed the story.**

**Oh, yeah, and the answer to a question more than one person has asked: Wen's objection to touch is a self-defense thing. Sorry that wasn't more obvious.**

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**The Mission**

"This is it."

At Wen's comment, Logan pulled the SUV to a stop in the run-down back road, and from the back seat, Alec looked up. In the dark, all that he could see was a tall, rusty security fence with big signs hanging on it that read, in big bold letters, "Keep Out. Violators will be prosecuted." Less than twenty feet beyond the fence, everything faded off into total darkness.

"You sure?" Max asked, leaning over Alec to see out his window, even though there wasn't much to be seen. "The place looks awful deserted."

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure," Wen responded. "It might not look like very much from here, but this is definitely the place." She opened her door and hopped out, beckoning Max and Alec to follow with a flick of her hand.

Alec opened his door and stepped out beside Wen, still trying to survey what he could see of the complex. He still couldn't see anything but the concrete ground inside the fence.

"Be careful," Logan said from the driver's seat.

"Careful as we can be," Max responded as stepped out of the SUV and closed the door behind her.

She stepped up beside Alec, who was still standing next to Wen, and the three X5s stood there for a long moment, sizing up the tall fence before them. Then simultaneously, they leapt up and over it, feet passing over the barbed wire top with little effort. And all three of them landed seamlessly on the other side.

Standing up straight, Wen cracked her neck and stretched her shoulders. "Let's go," she said.

And with that, she set off at a quick run that Max and Alec matched. As he ran beside and a half pace behind her, Alec examined and enjoyed the look of Wen's form as she ran. She looked so fluid and, for some reason, powerful.

The three X5s ran like that, side by side still, over several hundred feet of the concrete before the shape of a building rose up out of the darkness and they rapidly slowed to a halt.

Wen fell into a crouch, and Alec knelt beside her. Her eyes narrowed as she squinted towards the edge of the building, and Alec tried to look at what she was trying to see, but he couldn't see much of anything in the dark.

"Guards," Wen whispered sharply, her deep blue eyes slowly tracking something in the darkness in front of her like a predator tracking prey. "Two of them. One heading west, the other heading east. Wait for my signal."

"How can you even see?" Alec asked.

"Shh," Wen growled back at him, voice stiffly reprimanding him. Her eyes kept staring straight ahead, and her mouth moved as she silently counted off something. Then quickly, her hand snapped up and gestured for them to move.

Alec did as she indicated, and hurried across the open space between their position and the side of the building. Wen was right there with him, and Max was a half-step behind them. When they reached the wall, they instantly flattened against it, and Wen looked to both sides, squinting again into the darkness. After the guards, Alec assumed. When she was satisfied, she glanced up the wall and nodded to herself.

She pointed to Max, and then up the wall.

Alec and Max both looked up. There was a long ledge—well, more of a walkway—just visible about forty feet up with a short wooden rail running around it. Max looked back to Wen and adamantly shook her head. Even Alec knew that they couldn't make a jump up that high without any help.

Rolling her eyes, Wen intertwined her fingers and locked her hands together as she squatted a little closer to the ground. She jerked her head down at her hands, then back up at the ledge, implying that she wanted Max to step on her hands and she'd give her a boost. Deciding that it was as good an option as they had, Alec stepped closer to Wen and mirrored her position.

Reluctantly, Max placed a foot in each "cradle" and steadied herself with a hand on Wen's shoulder and her other hand on Alec's. And even though Alec expected Wen to shrug Max's hand off and mutter, "Don't touch" again, she didn't.

"One, two, three," Max quietly counted down.

At three, Alec and Wen both pushed quickly and forcefully upward with their hands as Max jumped, giving her a sizeable boost. She cleared the ledge's wooden railing and landed smoothly. After a few brief seconds which she probably used to glance around and make sure the coast was clear, she leaned back over the railing and motioned for Alec and Wen to come up.

Frowning, Alec looked at Wen to ask her what now.

She was back in the booster position she had been in a moment before, squatting with her back to the wall and hands folded into a cradle. And she gave Alec look that clearly said, "Well, hurry up already."

He shook his head and pointed at her. "You go," he mouthed.

She adamantly shook her head. "No," she mouthed back at him. "You go." When he opened his mouth to respond, her expression sharpened and her teeth gritted. "Alec, go now," she bit out, voice sharp even though it was quiet.

He shrugged and put a foot in her cradled hands, then placed a hand on each of her bare shoulders to steady himself. To his surprise, she didn't shrug them off. In fact, she didn't even appear to notice them as she was leaning her head back and looking up at the ledge above.

"One, two, three," she quietly said.

On three, she stood up and pushed up as he jumped. And he sailed up and over the wooden railing of the ledge to land beside Max. When he'd regained his balance completely, he stood up and leaned over the railing to look down at Wen, wondering how she planned to get herself up here. It wasn't like she had a rope or anything to help her.

But she turned around and sized up the wall.

After a few seconds, she folded herself down and then leapt up at the wall. She got farther than Alec expected her to get, but she still didn't reach the ledge. Obviously, though, that wasn't her aim as, before she started to fall back down to the ground, her hands wrapped tightly around something—probably a pipe, but Alec wasn't completely sure of what it was in the dark—and her feet planted against the wall of the building.

From where she was, Wen gave a short hop and wrapped her hands around the wooden railing so that she was now hanging from it. Alec moved to hoist her up, but before he could get there, she pushed herself up and over the banister and onto the ledge with Alec and Max.

She looked both ways along the walkway, squinting into the darkness. Then she turned back to Max and Alec and pointed in one of the directions. Max started off at a slinky, cat-like run in the direction first, taking point. Wen followed after her, and Alec waited and brought up the rear.

He didn't intend for it, but following behind Wen, he got quite the view of her figure. He watched the way her muscles flexed as she ran… And as she came to an abrupt halt, he crashed into her back.

With the force of it, both toppled to the ground, Alec falling on top of Wen's back. His head wound up in the middle of her back, and he blinked, surprised, for a long moment.

"Idiot," she hissed, looking over her shoulder at him with angry blue eyes.

"Don't blame me," he responded sharply. "You're the one who just suddenly stopped right in front of me without giving any sort of signal!"

She scoffed. "I gave plenty of signal, Alec," she snapped. "You just didn't see it because you were staring at my ass!" She reached down and slapped him rather roughly on the side of his neck. "And I'd appreciate it if you'd get _off_ my ass!"

"Oh, right." Alec quickly got up and held his hand down to Wen to help her up.

She slapped his hand away and pushed herself to her feet. "You really don't understand the whole don't touch thing, do you?" she said sharply. "Taking every chance you can to get your hands or something else on me."

"Shut it, both of you," Max snapped before Alec could respond. "Just zip it and let's move."

Wen brushed past Max, and Alec saw what he'd missed before because he hadn't been paying attention. There was a ninety-degree bend in the walkway, but around it was a door that would most likely lead inside the building. Wen moved up to the door and pressed her ear against it.

She waited for a long moment, then stepped back from the door. She bent down and pulled up one of her pants' legs, revealing a handgun holster strapped just above her ankle. She took the gun out and clicked the safety off. With a jerk of her head, she told Alec and Max to stand ready on either side of the door.

They did as she indicated, flanking the door.

Wen took a deep breath, and kicked in the wooden door. As the door fell to the ground with a clash, Wen brought her gun up and swept it back and forth as she scanned the room. Then she stepped inside and checked in either direction.

"Clear," she announced.

As she bent down to re-holster the gun, Max and Alec joined Wen inside the building. The dingy hallway they were now standing in was barely better lit than the darkness outside, but it did have a faint glow from dying light bulbs placed at regular intervals.

Standing up, Wen pointed one direction down the hallway. "One of us needs to go that way," she said. Then she turned and pointed in the opposite direction. "And the other two need to go this way."

"I'll go that way," Max volunteered, pointing back the way Wen had first indicated. She cocked her head and smirked. "After all, I wouldn't want to break up the wonderful team that you two make."

Alec and Wen exchanged a glance. "Team?" they asked concurrently.

"Aww," Max said, still smirking. "You even read each other's thoughts."

"Oh shut-up," Wen snapped. "We don't have time for this, so shut-up and listen." She pointed down the hallway Max was to take. "You go down this hallway, take the second hallway on the left. Go all the way down until you hit a bunch of lasers. Get through them—they're well spaced; it shouldn't be hard—to the computer. That computer's directly connected to the mainframe." She took something out of one of the pouches on her 'utility belt' and tossed a small chip-like device at Max, who caught it. "Put this on the computer and detonate it."

Max turned the chip over in her hands. "What is this? Some kind of bomb?"

"Not really, no," Wen answered. "It's what they call an electromagnetic disrupter. Basically, it's a mini-Pulse. It'll fry the computer circuits until they can't salvage any bit of data from it." She tossed something else to Max. "This, on the other hand, is a bomb. Lay it after you fry the computer."

"Why don't we just blow the whole place up and be done with it?" Alec asked. "Seems a lot easier than waiting around to fry a computer and _then_ blowing the place."

"It's safer to make sure the computers are all completely and totally fried first," Wen responded. "We want to make sure they don't have any chance of getting that stuff back."

Alec nodded. "Ah. I see."

"How do I set this here bomb?" Max asked, turning the smooth-cased, oval-shaped device over in her hands.

"_You _don't," Wen responded. She drew a small beeper-like gadget from her pocket. "It requires a remote detonation with a code. _I'll_ blow it once we get out of here. You'll get done with your part first, but just get out of here. Don't wait for me and Alec."

"Got it," Max said. She tucked the EM disrupter and bomb into her pockets. "See ya when this place is getting blown." She turned around and started at a run down the dark hallway. In a few seconds, she was gone.

Turning to Alec, Wen jerked her head in the opposite direction from the one Max had just disappeared in. "Let's go," she said. She didn't even wait for Alec to say anything, but set off immediately at a run.

Alec followed, and the two ran down the deserted corridor, with all its twists and turns, side by side. "You know, so far, the security in this place has been crappy," he noted. "Two security guards. The way you talked about these terrorists planning to blow up half of California, I expected more."

"We're in a deserted corner of the building," Wen responded. "They don't have much of anything to protect over here."

"Then why are we here?"

She rolled her eyes. "It's the easiest point of entry, genius," she said. "And the best access point to both of the places we need to get to—the computer mainframe and the power center. Max is taking out the mainframe; we're taking out the power center."

"What's blowing up this place even going to accomplish if they already have the bombs planted in California?"

"This is their base of operations. Take it out, and every thing will be uncoordinated. And it'll catch these terrorists all off-guard and give the other operatives already in place to take out the bombs enough time to do so."

"Oh." Then another thought occurred to him. "And why isn't this a one-woman job?" he asked. "I thought you were specially trained by your Amsoure organization or whatever. Shouldn't you be able to do this alone?"

"Do you realize that, if I was at this alone, by the time I could take out the mainframe and get from there halfway to the power center, they would already realize they had an intruder?" she said. "The minute their computers go down, they'd know something was up. And I'd be screwed."

"Oh. I didn't realize that."

"Yeah, I've had a lot of time to think about this one." She glanced over her shoulder at him, raising a golden-colored eyebrow. "And you should've known that I had a good reason. The mission planner always has a good reason."

Alec took offense at that statement, thinking Wen was being rather condescending. "Hey, I don't need a lecture or anything," he said sharply. "I'm here to help _you_."

"I didn't mean it like that," Wen responded. Suddenly she stopped, looking down a hallway that branched off to the right. "This is it. And security's going to get tighter, so keep your mouth shut."

He pretended to lock his lips and throw away the key. Wen just rolled her eyes.

And she set off down the new hallway, moving at a considerably slower pace than she had been before. Alec stayed behind her, and though he tried to keep his eyes ahead of him, on where he was going, they drifted to watch Wen's figure again. Luckily for him, when she snapped to a halt, she thrust out a hand to stop him. Instead of running into her back, he ran into her hand.

Wen pointed to her eyes with two fingers, then pointed several feet ahead into a brighter lit cross-corridor. Alec watched, and after a few seconds, a guard passed by, walking leisurely along.

Watching the man saunter by and then pass them entirely, Wen's mouth moved as she silently counted the passing seconds. When she reached a satisfying number, she silently nodded and motioned to Alec that they were going to go into the cross-corridor and head in the opposite direction from the guard.

He nodded.

Wen snuck around the corner soundlessly, throwing a glance over her shoulder where the guard was obliviously continuing his patrol. And Alec followed after her, blinking against the sudden brightness of this well-lit corridor and wondering faintly when he had become the sidekick that was always following.

They didn't have to go very far down this corridor before it opened up into a large, open room in which there, luckily, were no guards. In the center of the room was a pair of what looked like power poles—the kind one would see in a power plant. The section of floor in a twenty foot diameter around the poles was missing, and a railing stood around the edges of this open pit.

As Wen fumbled around trying to get something out of her utility belt, Alec wandered over to the railing and looked down. The space around the two poles was open for an entire floor, falling down to the ground. And, not a few feet down, red alarm lasers were visible crossing the empty space until the floor.

"What do we have to do here?" he asked.

Wen walked up beside him, also glancing down the empty space. "We're laying charges on both of those there poles," she answered. "So that when they're triggered, they'll blow the whole place."

Alec raised an eyebrow at her. "And how exactly do you plan on doing that?"

"Well, considering the lasers, and my lack of a rope, I'm just going to do this right here," she responded. She produced one of the bombs, on one side of which was adhesive. Then she tossed it at one of the poles. The adhesive worked, and it stuck.

"Wow. Complicated," Alec said sarcastically.

"Very," Wen said dryly in return. "We just have to do this quickly. Another guard will be coming through here in a few minutes." She handed Alec some of the charges, and gestured for him to go around the circle one way while she went the other.

They finished off the planting of the charges in no time. And for a brief moment, they stood surveying their work.

"Now let's—" Wen started.

"Who are you?" a voice interrupted from behind them, causing both Wen and Alec to freeze cold. They both slowly glanced over their shoulders to see the security guard standing there, gun aimed at them and finger hovering dangerously on the trigger. "What're you—?"

Reacting on pure instinct, Alec sped over to the man and caught him about the neck before he even finished his next question. Alec roughly pushed his forearm against the man's throat, effectively stopping the man mid-sentence. With a swift jerk, he quickly snapped the man's neck.

But along with the sound of the man's bones crunching came the sound of a bullet leaving his gun.

As Alec let the man's dead body crumble to the ground, he saw Wen gasp and likewise fall to the floor. The moment froze for Alec, and time stretched out as he saw her hands clench around her lower thigh as blood began to leak out and dye that part of her jeans crimson.

He was instantly at her side. "How bad is it?"

She grunted with pain, and Alec started to reach out and press a hand to her bullet wound, but stopped himself. "Not too bad," Wen said, not even noticing his attempt to touch her. "I'll be fine if we can get out of here quickly."

"Can you walk?"

She scoffed. "Hell no."

"Well, then, I don't know how…" he started.

"You can touch me," she said, laughing quietly as she knew why he wasn't already doing so. "You have temporary permission. This is an emergency, and if you don't get your hands on me and help me up now, I might have to hurt you."

He smiled in spite of the situation. "Yes, ma'am."

He quickly grabbed her by the upper arms and lifted her so that she could get her good leg underneath her. She did, but leaned on Alec more than she did her own leg. When she was balanced, Wen reached down and grabbed a handful of the bottom of her pants and pulled at it. A long strip tore off. She wrapped and tied it tightly around the wound in her leg like a bandage. Then she threw an arm over Alec's shoulders and leaned heavily against him for support.

"Let's go," she said, voice ragged with the pain. "Make it as quick as possible. We need to get the hell out of here before they start missing that guard."

Obediently, Alec started walking, supporting Wen against him. For the first few steps, she struggled trying to find a rhythm with her one good leg, but after those few she found her rhythm and the walking became gradually smoother. Even to the point where they were near jogging.

By the time they'd gotten back to the outside ledge, they'd perfected the movements.

Standing on the ledge, both of them looked down over the wooden railing. The two guards that had been passing by earlier when they came up were there again. Except this time, they didn't just go on walking past each other, but stopped to talk to one another.

"Great," Alec whispered. "Now how the hell do we get rid of them and get down there?"

One of the guards below pulled out a radio and held it to his ear as if listening. There was a brief exchange of words over the radio that Alec and Wen couldn't hear, then an exchange between the two guards. And then both of them started running off in one direction.

"Guess somebody started missing the dead guard," Wen murmured.

"Doesn't solve the problem of us getting down," Alec responded.

She frowned thoughtfully, looking down towards the ground, and then gave a long and contemplative, "Hmmm." After a pause, she went on, "There's really only one way I can think to do this, Alec."

"How?" he asked.

She licked her lips, then caught her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment. "Well, you could go down first and then I could… drop or fall off, since I can't really jump. And then you could catch me."

He raised and eyebrow. "You sure?"

"Well, we don't really have time to think up a better plan," she pointed out with a shrug. "It's this or nothing."

He nodded. "Okay, if that's how you want to do it." Slowly and carefully, he leant her up against the wooden railing and backed away. When he was sure she was balanced, he hopped over the railing, falling towards the ground below. He landed smoothly, and quickly stood up again.

He very carefully placed himself and held his arms out in position. Then he nodded up at Wen to signal that he was ready. She hopped as best as she could over the railing, turned herself in the right direction, and fell freely towards Alec's waiting arms.

To his relief, the catch was smooth and he didn't even come close to dropping her.

Instead, he carefully set her on the ground, and she once again slung her arm over his shoulders and leaned against him. And they set off walk-limping across the open ground in the direction that Wen said Logan's SUV was in.

Wen was having to work harder now, though, and her breathing was becoming more and more labored with each step they took. She was beginning to lean more and more heavily on Alec, and he was beginning to fear that she might not make it and he would have to carry her.

"We're gonna make it," he said, hoping that it would spur Wen onward.

"Yeah," she managed around gasping breaths.

Obviously, that wasn't helping her so much. Alec wracked his brain for better things to say to encourage her. "You're doing great, Wen," he praised her. "Really. You're doing good. Just keep moving."

"No." She shook her head. "Stop here."

"Wen, it's not that much further," he insisted. "We can make it—"

She gave as much of a chuckle as she could with as little breath as she had, causing Alec to halt. "No, not like that," she said. He watched as she fumbled around in her pocket and produced the beeper-like gadget she had shown Max and Alec earlier. She punched some sequence of buttons on it and waited.

The reaction wasn't immediate, but it did start quickly. There was an explosion in one end of the building that caused a bright but small flash of light. Then there was another, larger one at the other end that quickly built until practically the entire building was lit up with explosions.

The bright flash of light accompanying the explosions easily lit up the previously dark night.

Wen slumped against Alec, and his arm reflexively curled its way around her to half-hold her as they both kept on looking at the bright after-light of the explosions. "It's done," she murmured. "We did it."

"You said you always win," he replied. "You just won again."

"Yeah," she said simply.

He turned to look at her leaning her head on his shoulder and smiled. She returned the smile. Before he knew it, she had leaned over and pressed her lips against his. The kiss was quick, but quite heartfelt and meaningful. Even as short as it was, it somehow made Alec's stomach flip-flop.

When she broke away, Wen was still smiling, this time at a surprised Alec. "That was just a thank-you, so don't get any ideas or anything," she said.

He leaned back over to her and kissed her again. To his delight, she didn't back away. This second kiss was longer than the first, and he begrudgingly broke away from her after a moment because he knew she needed to breathe.

"And that," he said, "was a you're welcome."

**THE END**

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